indentThe whole purpose of the Forest of
Boland Railway was to save the gnomes the long walk from their homes on the banks of the
River Boland to their Gold Mine deep in the forest.v Set in a
time "Long before Watt watched a kettle boil...", the mine had a strong
wooden door with a bolt and a lock.v Outside the mine, in the
fresh air, the gnomes boiled up their dinners in a huge pot hung up over a roaring fire.v What happens in the story is far too complicated to go into here
but it seems reasonable that the pot and its supports might well have been kept as a
monument - a kind of reminder to later generations of a time when the gnomes of Boland
nearly came to grief!indentIn this photograph, a train of gold-bearing ore is seen
leaving the mine while a row of empties waits to be taken down to the work-face.v Empty carriages await the end of the miner's shift.